Afghanistan election: Hamid Karzai widens lead over Abdullah Abdullah

Hamid Karzai has widened his lead over chief rival Abdullah Abdullah as preliminary results from Afghanistan's presidential elections continued to trickle in.

Abdullah Abdullah speaks to the media in Kabul, AfghanistanPhoto: GETTY

By Ben Farmer in Kabul

1:18AM BST 27 Aug 2009

Mr Karzai had 42.3 per cent of nearly one million votes tallied so far and Dr Abdullah had 33.1 per cent, the Independent Election Commission said on Wednesday.

The partial result was calculated from only 17 per cent of the votes cast in the August 20 poll, which has become mired in hundreds of allegations of fraud and vote-rigging.

Ramazan Bashardost, a populist anti-corruption campaigner, is placed third so far with 10.8 per cent of the vote and Ashraf Ghani, an academic and former World Bank executive, was fourth with 2.8 per cent.

The first batch of results was released on Tuesday and had put the two leaders neck and neck.

Results will continue to trickle in day-by-day, election officials said, with a full preliminary result to be announced in a week to ten days.

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Final results could take three weeks as the Afghan elections watchdog trawls through hundreds of allegations of fraud. Dr Abdullah has claimed Hamid Karzai's supporters carried out widespread ballot box stuffing.

The Election Complaints Commission said it had received more than 1,000 complaints about the presidential and provincial council elections.

More than 40 have been judged high priority because they are potentially "material to the outcome".

Taliban insurgents waged a campaign of intimidation and violence which appeared to keep many voters away from polling stations.

Turn-out may be little more than 35 per cent nationwide and was less than 10 per cent in some violent districts of Helmand and Kandahar.